welcome! today is the first day of Autumn, and there is definitely a change in the air! i love it. this is my favourite season! and we are off ... the pastoral year has begun - helping out with teams for preparing our children for their sacraments - Confession, Eucharist, Confirmation -, helping out with baptismal prep team, pastorale jeunesse is in full swing with new projects on the horizon, finalizing everything 70th Anniversary of the Regional Eucharistic Congress of 1942 Hawkesbury, homilies, etc ... that was just this morning! ouch!

but now, i've got a new badge! that's right, there's a new sheriff in town! i'm now the official chaplain to the Ottawa Challenge Movement! what do all these ministries have in common? to make God in Our Lord Jesus Christ known and loved by all!

The Church “exists in order to evangelize, that is to say, in order to preach and teach, to be the channel of the gift of grace, to reconcile sinners with God, and to perpetuate Christ’s sacrifice in the Mass, which is the memorial of His death and glorious resurrection.” (Pope Paul VI, #14 Evangelii Nuntiandi)

i've read, heard, prayed this many times. but i cannot put into practice enough! in fact, now there are new ways to proclaim the Gospel, à la blog, websites, Internet, etc. however, i can't be on the computer all the time, because the ministry is still one-on-one, relational by nature! i need you to be me. so, back to Ottawa Challenge Movement! why, how, when, etc.

"The mission of Challenge is to bring young adults aged 18 to 25 into communion with Christ and His Church through Challenge Weekend retreats, and to give them ongoing support and encouragement to live out their Christian lives. To that end, we help participants to grow in holiness, to evangelize other young adults, and to contribute to the parish life of the Church." (Bp. Dowd, Montreal Challenge Movement, Cursillo Movement)

Ottawa Challenge Movement is the Cursillo Movement for youth! i have my first meeting with the team tomorrow afternoon. and the retreat for the youth is scheduled for the first weekend of Novemenber. if you know any youth that maybe interested, please keep me posted, and i will help them get in touch with our team! or, sign-up right now, at ottawachallenge.com!

proclaiming God in Jesus Christ is my life! however, i need to know Him better too, if i'm going to love Him more, follow and imitate Him! in fact, on this journey of faith, you can't walk along with Jesus. we need others to encourage us. after all, we are a family, and we need one another.

"Having been sent and evangelized, the Church herself sends out evangelizers. She puts on their lips the saving Word, she explains to them the message of which she herself is the depositary, she gives them the mandate which she herself has received and she sends them out to preach. To preach not their own selves or their personal ideas, but a Gospel of which neither she nor they are the absolute masters and owners, to dispose of it as they wish, but a Gospel of which they are the ministers, in order to pass it on with complete fidelity." (Pope Paul VI, #37 Evangelii Nuntiandi)

again, the emphasis this year - Year of Faith -, will be on new evangelization. i preach the Good News, because i heard it, experience it, struggle with it! as the document reminds me, i need, we all need to be re-evangelized, this journey is one of ongoing conversion! pray for the French priests this week, as we prepare to find that much needed balance in life. (Code of Canon Law 719 #1). preparing for life, + the pastorale jeunesse at - ESCRH, Paul VI, + SMB, i came across the conversion story of my brother abbé Jean-François Morin (now in Rockland). he found God through music! very good. and also, the story of Brother Eric, ofm. always imresses me, now with the Franciscans. this leads me to a new possible project: how about weekly, or monthly videos on our conversion stories, and how we live Faith?!